Thursday, December 03, 2009

Comicbörse Stuttgart 2009

As you may have noticed, it has been a while since my last post. As usual, just when I had all my ducks in a row for the next posts my computer commited suicide and it seems that my only option now is to take the harddrive and get a new computer.

So that means that it may take a while till I continue with the DC solicitations - or any solicitations for thast matter. The good news is that I was planning to write about something else in my next post anyway. At the end of November the Comicbörse took once again place and as usual I wanted to do a post about the comics I got there. Initially I was there to deliver the latest HORST translation in person ( since I forgot to make backups of the HORST data I had to sent for them again so it will take a while till the next one is online ) but as always the Comicbörse in Stuttgart is one of the few places where you can get hardcovers or trades at a reasonable price. Otherwise german comics are just too expensive.

So here is the first part of the swag I got. I don´t know how far I will come so I will start with the franco belgican part. Normally I have my big picture archive to draw upon but this time I have to get everything directly from the internet. We´ll see how that goes.

ODI`S BLOG 1 + 2

Yes, this may surprise some people but I have been known to read the occassional bande dessinee from time to time. It´s true, because of my exposure to only the best comics the american market has to offer I´m a bit picky when it comes to buying BDs. But from time to time there is one that catches my interest. This time it´s ODI`S BLOG by Sergio Garcia and Lola Moral.

The comic is a bit difficult to describe which is always a good sign. The stories are - well, here it begins. You see, all the pages in the comic are without words. So I don´t know if stories is the right words. The comic is about two main characters : one female, who has this haircut that makes her look a bit like Mickey Mouse; and a male who looks suspiciously like Tintin.

The episodes take place somewhere between our real world and the dreamscape, that magical twilight dimension where everything is possible. Like the Windsor McKay strip LITTLE NEMO the main character in the strip - mostly the female - goes about his everyday life, suddenly enters this other dimension and finally makes it back to our world. Of course without text it´s never explained if there really was a translocation to another dimension or if it was all in that persons mind - like a visionquest. Here a mountain of unironed clothes becomes a raging sea, a lonely stretch of road becomes a rollercoaster ride and the city a battlezone.

In any case it´s a very funny comic that`s also poetic and let´s you take a different look of the ordinary things in life and discover the Don Quixote that lies in us all.

Since the comic is without words SALLECK PUBLICATIONS, who is the german publisher, didn´t have to translate it. So far there have been two volumes which I bought together with a signed print. Normally the days for signed stuff is way behind me - except when I get something signed at a convention - but in this case I made an exception.

I also got the Dean Yeagle sketchbook at Salleck. There was a Crisse sketchbook but with four sketches on a 18 x 22 book they were just too small. The Dean Yeagle sketchbook on the other hand had much bigger pictures. With 15 EUROS it was more expensive but being a signed and numbered edition it was O.K. Especially with a little discount that you get at comic fairs. I don´t think you can get the 48 pages paperback at the Salleck homepage ( at least I couldn´t find it ) but for those who are unfamiliar with the name here´s the product info :

Dean Yeagle has spent most of his career in animation, working first for Zander's Animation Parlour in New York City and then with his own animation company, Caged Beagle Productions. In 2000, he began drawing cartoons for Playboy Magazine, and continues to do so on a regular basis. He publishes books featuring his character 'Mandy', and does design work and consulting for animation, corporate clients, comic books, children's books and advertising, and appears at comic conventions throughout the world. He has had a one-man show at Galerie Arludik in Paris (2008). He is married to Barbara, has a daughter Rebecca, son-in-law Nick, and granddaughter (and pure joy) Lily. They all live in Southern California.

This adaption of the classic children´s book of Franck Baum by David Chauvel and Enrique Fernandez originally appeared in three tomes that were collected into one volume by Ehapa. Of course we all know the story - or at least that part of it that was adapted for the Judy Garland musical - but the comic manages to capture the flair of it.

Sadly there are a few things that I have to comment. First of, the reduction in size - from magazine sized album format to US format book size - really doesn´t work so well. It may be that it helped with keeping the price down but on some pages you have a hard time figuring out what is happening. The artwork is just too detailed for the small format.

Another thing that - at least - I found annoying is the final cut. Either the three chapters of the book weren´t cut very good or there was some accident when they were glued together. In any case the pages are uneven, it took me out of the reading experience and it doesn´t look very nice on the bookshelf.

Apart from that it´s a great book with wonderful art that really brings this classic tale to life. I can only recommend it as a present for the upcoming Christmas holidays. Some pages are a bit grey and dull but that´s only at the beginning and serves to show the transition form Dorothy´s world in Kansas and the wonderful land of Oz.

A few more pages :

CANARI

Canari is written by Crisse and drawn by the late Carlos Meglia who died last August. When I first saw this in my local comicshop I was a bit reluctant to buy it because it was a BD and not inked. Usually I prefer inked comics over those overcolored comics where every panel looks like an anime cel.

But being that this is the last work by Carlos and it was offered at a bargain price. Carlos Meglia wasn´t very well known in America, in fact on the few occasions where he worked for american publishers like on IMAGE´s WILDCATS there were some readers who mistook him for a Humberto Ramos rip off. Which is kind of funny since Humberto Ramos was influenced by Carlos Meglia. Maybe one of these days I will get around to do a proper post about Carlos Meglia and his famous Cyber Six series.

And that´s all for the first part. Maybe next time we will get to the other comics I bought but I may have to wait till after christmas for that since a lot of the stuff is going to end up as presents.

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About Me

Working stiff at day, secret crimefighting blogger at night I was born into a world I never made. I always loved comics and even wrote and drew some. Together with my brother who is much more interested in making comics we even self-published a comic called POWER FREAKS that is infamous in Germany. Due to financial troubles and artistic differences sadly there has been only one issue so far. Being more of a reader than a collector of comics I always read the foreign versions of the american comics what led me to start this little blog. If you have any comment ( or want to send me some review copies ) please drop me a line in the comment section or send me an e - mail.